More small and medium-sized businesses in New England plan to hire new workers this year, survey says

DEDHAM – A new survey finds a growing number of small and medium-sized businesses in New England plan to hire new workers and offer pay raises this year.

The survey released Wednesday by Dedham-based Insight Performance, Inc., and the Smaller Business Association of New England polled companies with 50 or fewer employees and annual revenues of $20 million or less. It found that 42 percent of those companies planned new hires in 2010, compared with only 29 percent last year.

Forty-three percent of the firms said they planned to increase the base pay of their workers compared with 29 percent in 2009.

While executives of the New England businesses are more optimistic about the coming year, the survey also found they expect economic progress to be slow and incremental.